Monument record 0444000000 - 500M NW OF OLD PARK FARM

SEVERAL LINEAR FEATURES, POSSIBLY RIGHT-ANGLED & CURVED-SIDED ENCLOSURES, ALTHOUGH NONE APPEARS COMPLETE, VISIBLE AS CROPMARKS IN AP. IN EXTREME SW OF FIELD IS A PENANNULAR CROPMARK, OPEN TOWARDS SW & C.1 2M ACROSS. PLOTTED AT 1:2500 (NMR METHOD)(B1).
An extensive area of magnetic anomalies relating to underlying archaeological features were detected during initial scanning along the proposed route of a new water main (Area 18). Subsequent detailed magnetometer survey of a 120m X 30m area (Area E) identified part of a large ditched enclosure at least 90m X 25m with associated external and internal features including a possible oval enclosure measuring 20m X 15m and a number of pits. Interpreted as possible later prehistoric (Late Bronze Age or Early Iron Age) settlement remains (B2).
The pipeline was subsequently re-routed to avoid the anomalies (B3).

Linear ditches, pits and a penannular enclosure of probable Bronze Ae or Iron Age date are visible on historic aerial photographs as cropmarks and were mapped as part of the Aylesbury Vale Aerial Investigation and Mapping project (EBC18604). Located across three fields about 480 metres NW of Old park and centred at SP 86807 22847, the ditches extend across an area about 370 metres SW-NE. The ditches are parallel and on a general W-E alignment but do not form a coherent pattern of enclosure or settlement. It seems possible that some of these are of geological origin, as a complex of geological cropmarks are visible on aerial photographs taken in 1975. The exception is a (reverse) L-shaped ditch that may suggest the fragment of a rectilinear enclosure. However, no other ditches are visible on the opposite side of any putative enclosure. Also visible are a scatter of pits that may be associated. Centred at SP 86816 22652 is a penannular ditched enclosure in the corner boundary of a field. The ditch is up to 1.3 metres wide and encloses an area about 10 metres WNW-ESE and 13 metres NNE-SSW, with the SSW facing side open. Aerial photographs taken in 1949 show that the same fields were covered in medieval or post-medieval ridge and furrow cultivation blocks at that time, which had been plough levelled by 1961. The cropmarks do not appear on any of the other aerial photographs available to the project, including Google Earth imagery. On aerial photographs taken in 2022, there is no evidence of the features described (4-5).